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For Deb Thompson, fitness means paying attention to the whole body, and making lifestyle changes that are sustainable.

Thompson, a Sioux Falls resident, has lost 34 pounds since the beginning of the year.

But she’d rather focus on how she feels: Better.

“No matter what your weight is, and no matter if you wear a size 6 or a size 10 or a size 20, when your clothes get tight, you just don’t feel good,” Thompson said. “It’s all how you feel. I knew I had some weight to lose, and I had lost it probably 10 years ago, and then you hit that magic 5-0 number, and your body just does weird things and your metabolism slows down.”

For about 20 years, Thompson worked out at the YMCA over her lunch hour, but she’d let the habit sort of slip away.

“I wasn’t going as often as I should, and instead of going three times a week, I’d go maybe two, and if someone asked me to go to lunch, it would be one, and if I didn’t go that day it really wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said. “I just decided after the first of the year that it was time.”

Thompson works as an administrative assistant at First National Bank, where they have incentives for employees to get healthier and lose weight.

If employees exercise for 90 minutes a week they receive a discount on their insurance rates. Employees also have had access to a mobile application called Fit Thumb, which helps track exercise, food and water consumption.

The bank also reimburses employees for memberships in Sanford Profile, a weight-loss program, or Weight Watchers if they meet their goal or lose 25 pounds, said Allie Fischer, human relations coordinator at First National Bank, who also coordinates the wellness program.

The bank also holds weight loss and fitness challenges, and brings in speakers about fitness and nutrition.

“We have a full-force wellness program since about 2010,” Fischer said. “We look at not just physical wellness, but at financial wellness, emotional wellness, all those different aspects.”

Out of the employees enrolled in the bank’s insurance, Fischer said more than 93 percent track their exercise.

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In January, Thompson joined the Weight Watchers group at work, which had more than 20 participants. Weight Watchers is a program which assigns points to foods based on their nutritional value. Participants, based on their body weight, have a certain number of points to use each day.

“The meetings were at 4:30 on Wednesdays right at the bank, and I had no excuse not to go,” she said. “You get that support at work, where you’re at most of the day. I got phenomenal support at home, and at work, from my friends.”

“You can pick any diet that you want, but when you decide to make a change and if you want to keep the change, it has to be a lifetime change,” she said. “I can’t do the protein shakes, it just doesn’t work for me, but with Weight Watchers, you can eat whatever you want to. They don’t say you can’t have that sugar cookie, they tell you that you can have it, you just have to figure out how many points are in it. It just worked for me.”

Along with using Weight Watchers, Thompson re-committed going to the YMCA four times a week to amp up her exercise. She does circuit classes three times a week, and runs on the treadmill once a week.

Thompson pulled a hamstring about 10 years ago. But with the help of a mobile app called Couch to 5K, she started running again. Using the app to run is fun, she said, because it gradually increases the amount of time you run, broken up by segments of walking.

Thompson likes to exercise more outside in the warmer months and will move inside to the YMCA during the winter months.

“I don’t run fast, by any means,” she said. “It just worked for me, I loved it. I could listen to my music, and I could get my workout in.”

Focusing more what she’s eating also has played a big role.

“The important thing is, you’re eating a balanced meal,” she said. “You want to lose the weight really fast, but losing it fast isn’t going to keep it off. With Weight Watchers, they teach you how to eat a balanced meal. I am the first one to admit, I ate terribly. I would eat chips and I would eat sweets. I was not very good at eating fresh vegetables, and I was not very good at eating protein at all.”

With Weight Watchers, fresh fruits and vegetables are all zero points, so Thompson was happy she could eat as many of them as she wanted, but she said she didn’t lose any weight until she started making protein a regular part of her diet.

“You always have to think about it, and you always have things going on, but you have to make time for yourself,” she said.

With her portion control and healthier food choices, her husband has also lost about 30 pounds since the beginning of the year.

Thompson said she has found a routine she can stick with.

“We want to keep doing this, because we feel so much better,” she said. “We’re grandparents, and we want to be there for our grandkids.”